Thursday 18 February 2010

Lara Update

The little princess is fine now, and this week she's been sleeping better than ever - I hope that's not famous last words. She's not woken in the evenings at all this week, whereas normally we'd expect to have to go and give her water around 11pm. Then she's slept through the night without waking enough for us to have to check on her, and we've been having lie-ins as she's not been stirring until 7.30 or later. Yesterday she was happy to go back to bed while Olga had her shower, and then just to top off a good morning, she got full use out of the potty, if you get my meaning.
The potty training is a matter of perseverence, and there was a day at nursery earlier this week with six "accidents", but then yesterday there was only one, and today, three.
Conversations are getting longer, and she is definitely putting much thought into what he says. I'll try to remember some of the witty things she comes out with. Whether it's a good thing or not, I don't know, but should she let a little "bottom-burp" escape, and we ask if that was a "Lara trumpet", the reply is always "Nooo! Papa trumpet". False, but funny.

Quite Interesting.. finally

If you've got nothing better to do tomorrow night, watch QI on BBC at 8.30pm - it's the episode that was filmed when we were in the audience (see http://chrisolga.blogspot.com/2009/05/quite-interesting.html). Better still, watch the extended edition on Saturday night.

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Monday 15 February 2010

Dave Gorman


I went to see Dave Gorman live on stage last night in Reading with my friend Simon (just the thing to do on Valentine's Day). He is one of my favourite comedians, and was very much on form last night, dealing wonderfully with one heckler, who spoiled a perfectly good heckle (Dave: "I've got a twin brother... " Heckler: "Is he the funny one?") by trying to outwit Dave in the subsequent banter. It made a nice change, but reminded me that I'm not designed well for sitting in the same seat for two and a half hours, but at least I learned about the evolution of the Honey Monster.

Kids update

Lara is back to her normal self, and went back to nursery today.  Her chickenpox spots are fading, and we hope none will leave a lasting mark. Her character is becoming more polarised, between behaving like an intelligent angel with a great sense of humour, to a wailing, screeching pain in the bum. We know she's just trying to assert herself, but we're not the kind of parents to give in, even to a two year old, so we tend to dig in until Lara gives up and does it our way. This can lead to a few minutes of screeching, complete with the full-on, lying-on-the floor, kicking arms and legs tantrum, but so far this has been restricted to our house, and not in public. I'm sure we'd be more likely to compromise with Lara is we were in a restaurant or supermarket, but at home, Mama and Papa rule.
Potty training is progressing, with good days and bad days. This evening, before bed, Lara insisted that Bob the Builder go on the potty before she did, but at least that shows she is thinking about it.
As for the four-legged kids, they're fine. Jackson had a bath tonight, and that has fluffed up his fur, and now he looks like an overfed cat. Perhaps I need to ease him off the doggy treats....

Armchair Olympians


We're going for gold when it comes to watching the Olympics on TV. Olga is used to watching the Winter Olympics closely, given Russia's performances in many of the events over the years, whereas us Brits have been restricted to re-runs of the Bolero - just think, that was only 26 years ago.. It's been good to see Eddie the Eagle on the Churchill Insurance adverts on TV, but even his attempts were back in 1988 in Calgary! I'll not forget about the Scottish ladies' curling team though, of course. We stayed up till 1am last night watching the final of the men's Luge event.
Tonight we've been occupied by the Men's Snowboard Cross. A fortune could be made if the bookies got hold of it and treated it like a greyhound race, it really seems to be a lottery, with favourites crashing out all the time. It could be a great event for the tortoise, not the hare.